In refusing to send DCs to school with plastic water bottles?

[MadameCastafiore]

Right may be a bit long winded but here we go.

DCs have a new head at their school and a couple of months ago were sent home with really shite plastic bottles with sports caps which we were told had to be used for them to drink water in class - now I refused - the bottles were made of the same plastic you buy evian, you couldn't put them in the dishwasher to clean them and IMO you can never get a sports cap properly clean and the ones on these bottles were really soft plastic which after they had been chewed a couple of times (which all kids do I think) they looked grotty and really filthy.

Anyway fast forward to DCs getting in trouble for not having these bottles - I worte to the head and told him about the crappness of the plastic and the fact that they were made of a type of plastic that was not meant to be used over and over again and I said my kids would be using their sig bottles due to the fact that they were easy to clean, did not have sports caps (a urologist I spoke to said sports caps are vile and harbour germs and he told all of his kidney patients not to use them but to sip straight from the bottle) and they were made of metal which did not leach chemicals into the water (don't want my kids drinking from bottles which leach chemicals that mimic oestrogen into the water they are going to drink) and they were not see through so sunlight and heat wouldn;t affect the water and make bacteria multiply if the bottles were not properly cleaned.

He then fought a bit and last week they were selling new bottles (because the first one was free after that you have to pay £1.50 if you lose or break them), new bottles that are made out of a different kind of plastic and can go in the dishwasher but they still have sports caps.

The headmaster says that the bottles have to be see through so he can be sure we are not sending the kids to school with juice or fizzy drink (doh flavoured water is what most of DSs friends have in theirs which nulifies the point to some degree!) I said I am quite happy for him to check the DCs bottles and to make sure it is just water or I am happy to send them in with empty bottles which they will fill up from the water fountain at school.

Now do you think I am making a big thing out of nothing, I do think it is silly to kick off about lots of little things but it grates on me that this man does not trust us enough to do the best for our children and I know some parents don't but really this level of control is a little purile IMO. DSs teacher hasn;t said anything else to him after the first few times but DDs teacher is on her case telling her she muct have this see through bottle.

Can he make us use them is something I would also like answered?

Thank you for taking the time to read my ranty essay.

If you drink before school, at mid morning break, at lunch time, afternoon break and at home time, those are IMO perfectly adequate opps for water intake.
However, I have no objection whatsoever to water being sipped in the classroom. What I do object to is those who start mouthing off about the type of container and those whose children seem to be genetically different from everyone else and can't drink water

'genetically different' I don't think a dislike of water is a genetic disorder. Why should we have to forcefeed our children water if they don't like it. It's sort of hard to take you seriously when you use terms like sugar water to describe squash. If you don't like it don't give it to your children.

I am being sarcastic, LOL LOL @ force feeding them water!!!!! Water is healthy and certainly the only thing allowed at schools. Heaven help us.

claire squash IS sugar water, coloured sugar water. Kids like it because it is sweet. They like sweets because they are sugary etc etc. They prefer it to water because they want the sugar.

cat64 "MsHighWater - I didn't read her post as being patronising, it is clear from your insistance that it is fine for children to drink whatever they want during the day that you've never taught a class full of hyped up children 'high' on bubblegum flavoured pop"

cat64, you know next to nothing about me. You have no idea what experience of children I have so you why don't you keep your assumptions to yourself?

As a matter of fact, the point I was making was less about the drink than it was about the Head's assumption that s/he can mandate what vessel it is contained in. There might be a good reason for restricting the drink to water; there is not a good enough one to dictate the details of the bottle.

She can dictate what bottle it is contained in MsHighwater. I have a feeling that your DC is young. You will discover that all schools have rules and individual parents can not decide which ones they will adhere to. If you want to change it, ask all the parents and if you have enough agreement I expect you can get change, however I doubt whether you will get enough support on this issue. You can send your own container every day and the school can simply take it off your DD, give her water in a cup and the container back at the end of the day.

Gordon Bennett! The Head at my DC's school took quite a bit of stick from some paretns when she resisted the call for water bottles on desks and stuck to the water in a jug at the side of the room thing. I think she is a VERY wise woman.

do you think school dinners contain no sugar or additives?
and why do people still believe the myth that sugar negatively affects children's behaviour.This has been debunked years ago.In fact it is supposed to have a positive effect on memory and cognitive tasks.
Also very few additives have been suspected of influencing children's behaviour.

i am really surprised at some of the schools that have been mentioned on here.At our school the parents would just ignore stupid rules like that.If a teacher tried doing something as petty as confiscating d a child's water bottle for being the wrong type, a solicitors letter would be on the way before the end of teh week.I really don't get why parents in some areas allow the schools to treat them like this?

A solicitor's letter? FGS.

Well they might contact the LEA and their MP first

Threw 24 water bottles away today - 19 containing stagnant water.

(kidney disease after an hour of not having a drink? What planet are you lot on?)

Good grief-a solicitors letter over a water bottle!!! I am surprised that they get teachers to work in the school! No way would I teach in the school where parents are going to be so difficult. Education is a partnership and I have always had a very good relationship with parents. I feel very sorry for their DCs and I would vote with my feet and find a school with reasonable parents.

piscesmoon, I am dismayed by your suggestion that the school would pick on an individual child in order to manipulate communicate with their parent. Is that really the standard any parent should expect from the teaching profession?

Besides, piscesmoon, I think your notion that parental action is determined by a form of democracy (i.e. a parent must have agreement of a majority of the other parents before they can defy a school "rule") is wishful thinking on your part. I recall a recent thread about the lunchobox police in which someone posted a link to a news story from a while back concerning the parent who had objected to the school's policy of demanding to inspect the contents of packed lunches. The article that reported the legal judgment in the parent's favour didn't mention whether that parent had got the permission of most of the other parents before taking legal action against the school. I kind of doubt that they did that.

MsHighwater-I am in RL a very reasonable person. I'm afraid that you just bring out the utter childishness in me, because you appear to be so difficult for the sheer sake of it. I remember your thread where you wanted the right to send your DC into school with a processed snack when the rule was fruit! Your DC will survive the few hours between breakfast on lunch on water and fruit!
Of course I wouldn't victimise a DC because they had an unreasonable parent-I get carried away on here when people suggest that a simple rule on water bottles necessitates a solicitor's letter!
I hope that you realise that in the staffroom eyes would roll at the mention of your name and there would be a general groan if you wanted to speak about something. Teachers are human and not robots-they react in kind.

In RL, I can assure your that it is not an issue. It isn't something that people waste their time thinking about. Generally the same water bottles lie around all week and I threaten to throw them away if they are not taken home for a wash. Most DCs don't bother with a drink unless the weather is hot, in which case they have to be refilled several times and do get taken home. In high summer DCs will drink water after running around outside. This time of year they are not bothered, but it is there if needed.

We will just have to agree to differ-it is pointless going over the same ground-neither of us are going to change our mind. I never know why I start these things!!

Well said pisces moon, LOL @ the term "difficult" parent. You're being very generous. I do wonder if parents ever think about how the teachers view them.
Also mrshighwater, had you ever thought how your behaviour WILL affect how your dc is treated at school by the teachers? This is because no matter how impartial a teacher will try to be in the face of a ranting and unreasonable parent, it Will affect the teacher's relationship with the child concerned.
You are doing your child no favours by behaving this way. So I would say that parents behaving this way are driven by purely selfish motives. It isn't to do with their children it is to do with asserting themselves. If they were doing it for the children they wouldn't actually behave in a way that put their kids at a disadvantage with the staff in the school.

Dear me, some people......

'Difficult' was a euphemism for what they would be called in the staff room!
I think that I am a 'pushy' parent because I have always fought for what I want for my DCs, but I have always done so over major educational issues, like extra help for dyslexia. I have always been polite and friendly and been realistic, bearing in mind the rest of the class. Over the years there have been little niggles, but I let them go, they are really unimportant and the majority haven't agreed with them anyway. If I had made a huge fuss over waterbottles then I don't think that I would have had the same cooperation over the major issues-staff would have mentally switched off before I had made my point. Some parents are always know by all staff as 'lovely parents' and that is how I would prefer to be viewed!

Has it never occurred to people that a smile, a sense of humour and a quiet word about water bottles might get much further than solicitor's letters or belligerent statements about parent's 'rights'? I would never send a solicitors letter-if I was that unhappy I would change the school.

I do think it sad that people don't see the bigger picture.

If the majority of children (rather than an unfortunate few with medical conditions) are so sensitive these days- how do they ever manage to have adventures?

They have virtual reality ones cory-safe in their bedroom!

Adventures indeed, what an idea! Yes they wouldn't know what a tree was if it came up and bit them on the bum let alone actually climb one and heaven forbid fall out.
But I suppose if they did ever climb a tree or have some sort of similar adventure there would be a helicopter parent waiting underneath with a saftey net and a bottle full of squash. Not forgetting to sue the tree if said dc happens to fall out of it

piscesmoon, yes I taught pre dc and 'difficult' is a term that was thrown about the staffroom as well as groaning and eye rolling when said parent appeared again with yet another gripe.

You have to chose your battles as a parent both at home and at school.

Blimey. I'm only in my late twenties but there certainly weren't water fountains at any school I attended. No way were you allowed to drink in lessons - including games and PE. All the sinks in school were labelled not drinking water. I'd have a drink with breakfast, one with lunch, one one getting home from school and one with dinner....never had a UTI or suffered dehydration/exhausation/heatstroke.

I would think that the mum who wanted a list of the ingredients in school dinners & expects the teacher to keep track of which days her pfb is allowed school dinners & which days they have packed lunch as well as asking the teacher to ensure her child doesn't go on the apparatus in case they fall would be regarded as difficult. Or the mum who sends her ds to school with fruit shoots & pepparami or sweets for snack & the teacher has to speak to almost every day about such delightful incidences as her ds weeing on other children as a joke would be regarded as difficult.

I'm slightly confused as to why it is that the posters who are so obsessed with everyone drinking water are now suggesting that ones with a slightly more relaxed attitude are helicopter parents. The helicopter parents I know are the ones who go on about how their children aren't allowed to drink anything other than water as if a mouthful of squash might poison them.

I agree claire, there can be obsessions in both directions. Relaxed is the way to go. But if the school rule says water then that's the school rule.
It's like sending your dc to a school that has a red sweatshirt and putting the dc in a green one because they don't like red. It's crazy.